A Rescue, Not a Pick-up
by TheHttydRaven
Summary: When confronted by an angry boyfriend after saving a young woman from drowning, Jesse gets hurt and his fellow lifeguards have to save him. [Bondi Rescue Fic]


"She's going under, go, go!"

Jesse quickly threw his shirt, along with his radio, aside before grabbing ahold of his rescue board and running towards the blue waters that were gently lapping against the hot sand of the beach.

As Jesse ran into the cool water, his eyes were locked onto the form of the female that he had been instructed to rescue, the girl struggling to keep her head above the frothing waves as her hands flailed in the air, fruitlessly searching for assistance. Jesse tossed the board forward and threw his body onto it, muscled arms immediately plunging into the water to propel himself forward, legs arching as he cut through the surf, eyes not leaving the struggling girls form for a moment, his mind only focused on the current situation. The girl's struggles had slowed down, as she had obviously grown tired from her frantic failings as she sunk lower and lower into the water, which now was at her mouth, her nose still above the water, but not for long.

As Jesse reached her, he quickly threw out his hand and grasped ahold of hers right as she dipped below the waters surface, the lifeguard strained as he pulled the young woman onto the board, but he successfully situated her in front of him, the young lady gasping for air as she violently coughed, seawater spewing from her nose and mouth as she bent over on the board, Jesse resting a stabilizing hand upon her back as she recovered.

Once confirming she wasn't in any immediate drowning and getting her name, Laura, Jesse turned the rescue board around and began to paddle them back to shore, making sure to keep the rescue board stable as Laura tightly gripped onto the ropes.

Once reaching the shallow waters that lined the beach, Jesse lightly jumped from the board and used a hand to keep the board still while using his other to help Laura get to her feet, before resting his hand on her shoulder as he made sure she was okay.

"Are you alright? Any pain?" Jesse hoisted the rescue board up to his side as Laura shook her head, smiling in relief.

"No, I think I'm alright. Thank you so much for saving me." Laura smiled at Jesse, who gave her a quick smile in return.

"Alrighty, just try to be safer next time. And if you think you took in any water, make sure you get yourself to a hospital to get checked out by a doctor. We don't want ya to die of dry drowning." After warning Laura of what to do if she swallowed any water before Jesse rescued her, he quickly patted her on the shoulder before turning to go to where his lifeguard shirt and radio were lying, discarded upon the sand as a result of his earlier dash to save the struggling girl.

"Hey, hey!"

Jesse turned to see a young man around his age coming at him, face contorted in anger as he waved his hands around.

"Jo-" Laura started to speak, but the man cut her off.

"What do you think you're doing, eh?!" The man stormed up to Jesse, breath stinking of alcohol, which he must've drunk before coming onto the beach. "Touching my girl like that? Huh?!"

Jesse realized that this angered and very drunk man must be Laura's boyfriend, and he was very, _very_ angry at Jesse.

"Woah mate, I just saved your girlfriend from drowning, that's all." Jesse held up his hands in a placating gesture as he took a small step backwards, away from the man. "Let's just all calm down and not do anything rash."

"Calm down?! I'll show you calm!" The man growled. ""And I'm not your damn mate!"

Jesse blinked as the man ranted; and that was all the time he had to react before the angered guy's fist slammed into the right side of his face. Jesse grunted as he fell to the boiling sand like a dropped sack of rocks, grasping his jaw as he groaned in pain. The young lifeguard could tell without needing to check that his nose was bleeding, his mouth filling with the irony taste of blood. As Jesse held up a hand to his face, large drops of blood fell from his nose, the skin on his hand quickly being stained crimson.

"Josh!" Out of the corner of his eye Jesse could see Laura try to grab Josh's arm, but the drunk man shouldered her away before leaning down to grab Jesse by the arm, hauling the lifeguard to his feet, a few drops of blood from Jesse's nose splattering across him.

Maxi, who was keeping an eye on the beach and the water from the tower, cursed softly as he radioed Hoppo, eyes trained on the collapsed form of Jesse, who had just been thrown into the sand by a man.

"Maxi to Hoppo, we've got a situation." Maxi held the radio up to his mouth, motioning to one of the other free lifeguards in the tower, which turned out to be Yak, as he waited to hear a response from the head lifeguard.

"Yeah, Maxi?" The radio crackled as Hoppo's voice came through.

"There's have an altercation on the beach. Jesse just rescued a young woman and by the looks of it her boyfriend is having a go at him. Things are looking like their getting nasty; the boyfriend just punched Jesse a moment ago."

"I'm on my way. Is he down by the south end?"

As Maxi replied with confirmation, he nodded at Yak, who left the tower at a run, also heading to assist Hoppo and Jesse.

As Hoppo ran up to Jesse, he saw the guy that was standing over Jesse reach down, a hand roughly pulling Jesse to his unstable feet, before punching him in the stomach, the young lifeguard wheezing and curling over, legs collapsing as he dropped to the hot sand.

"Hey, hey!" Hoppo jumped from the buggy as it slowed to a stop and raced up to the man, and when he could tell that the guy wasn't going to go quietly, he took matters into his own hands and decided to perform a citizen's arrest.

Further up the beach, Yak, who had been running on foot, saw his friend and fellow lifeguard go down to the sand, quickly picked up his pace, feet pounding the heated sand as he raced down the beach, skillfully dodging around sunbathers and strolling couples as he went.

As Yak skidded to a halt by Jesse, he could see Hoppo restraining the man's arms behind his back, obviously it the middle of performing a citizens arrest, leaving Yak to assist Jesse, who was collapsed in the sand, obviously in pain.

Yak knelt down next to Jesse and gently helped him sit up, eyes widening as the older man saw the steady stream of blood that was pouring from Jesse's nose.

After helped the injured lifeguard up and leading him to the buggy, Yak jumped into They drove up to the tower where Maxi was waiting, and ice pack and a box of tissues in hand, which he quickly handed to Yak, who gave Jesse the tissues to hold to his nose, while pressing the ice against Jesse's stomach where the man had punched him.

"You alright mate?" Maxi crouched next to Jesse as the lifeguard groaned and leant back against Yak. "It really looked like that guy had got ya good."

"Yeah, yeah," Jesse's voice was muffled as he tilted his head down, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as the tissues turned a bright red. "I'll be fine as soon as my damned nose stops bleedin'."

"And as soon as you get home and rest." Hoppo, who had just entered the tower, smirked as he looked down at the injured lifeguard. "You're done for the day, once you stop spilling blood everywhere get yourself home and rest."

Jesse groaned but reluctantly agreed.

As Jesse found out later, it had turned out that Hoppo had handed the man over to the police, who had taken him away.

Jesse was lucky for sure, there was no telling how far that guy would've gone without Hoppo and Yak there to stop him.


End file.
